‘Ali mon go’ – 2

A certain Col. Ahmadu Ali, played the Nigerian version of “Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher” (the unflattering ode to the late Margaret Thatcher, later Britain’s first female prime minister but then, a young minister); who removed social benefits, such as free milk to pupils in British public schools.

The powerful National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), under the heavily bearded and fearsomely charismatic Segun Okeowo (of blessed memory), would have none of that nonsense.

Enter, the nationwide and bloody “Ali Must Go” protests and riots, that claimed lives of students from the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU). It also claimed the UNILAG vice-chancellorship of Prof. Jacob F. Ade-Ajayi, the iconic historian of blessed memory.

Well, the market women, sympathetic to the protests, dubbed it “Ali mon go” — and mass mobilised for his sack!

Incidentally, Ali didn’t “go”, for his boss didn’t sack him. Indeed, he managed a second coming, as civilian President Obasanjo’s “garrison commander” and chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the heady days towards the 2007 “do-or-die” elections (Obasanjo’s exact words!)

Now, 39 years later in 2017, Ali must go – 2 is brewing. And it is testimony to its lack of popular appeal that no excited market folks are re-branding it in their own lingo.

It has to do with Col. Hameed Ali, the retired soldier named as Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service. The Senate had gone into a graceless tango with him to wear his uniform. The man demurred and a shouting clang ensued.

It ended with a see-saw stalemate — seeming victory for the man; but a defeat for the Senate? Don’t bet on anything.

Still, an infuriated Senate, growling every inch like a sour loser, branded the man unfit to occupy public office, and called for his sack — its democratic opinion, to which it has a right.

But the president, who appointed Ali? He has treated the whole drama with detached and bemused silence — and just as well!

For Hardball, however, the most dramatic lesson from the Senate-Ali rumble is the public’s scornful disinterest.

While Ali mon go – 1 fired popular imagination, Ali must go – 2 appears met with a literal yawn. Is that a function of how low the Senate, under Bukola Saraki, has dipped into odium and public contempt?

Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps after this, if it is not to eat crow, the Senate would do well to pick its fights; and not just blunder into orders it has no power to enforce.